Nearly two months after floating his candidacy, Lancman launched his campaign with a video railing against racial and class disparities in the justice system critics in New York’s geographically largest and most diverse borough say District Attorney Richard Brown, 86, inflamed with a heavy-handed prosecutorial approach. In the video, Lancman vows to “make it a priority to protect working people and immigrants preyed upon for their vulnerability.”

Council Member Rory Lancman of Queens has officially flung his fedora into the ring for his borough’s 2019 district attorney race, and along with it, a lacerating critique of the county’s current criminal justice workings.

Lancman said prosecutors too often slam defendants with excessive charges early in the arraignment process, one of several practices he deems unfair.

New York City Councilman Rory Lancman said Wednesday he is running for Queens district attorney, raising the possibility the borough’s longtime top prosecutor may face a significant challenge for the first time in nearly three decades.

New York City Councilman Rory Lancman is officially launching his run for Queens district attorney, promising to bring progressive reforms to an office that has been run by the same prosecutor for more than a quarter century.

Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Hillcrest) is officially throwing his hat in the Queens DA race for next year’s September election.
Queens DA Richard Brown will be finishing his seventh term as district attorney, a position he has held since 1991, making him the longest-serving DA in the five boroughs.

After months of preparation, District 24 Council Member Rory Lancman officially announced his candidacy for Queens County District Attorney in a video message this morning.

Lancman, whose district includes parts of Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens Hills, Jamaica and several other neighborhoods, serves as chair of the Council’s Committee on the Justice System. He has been one of the borough’s most vocal advocates for ending the cash bail system, closing Rikers Island jails, ceasing the prosecution of low-level marijuana offenses and providing alternatives to incarceration for defendants who commit nonviolent crimes related to opioid abuse.

After months of strongly hinting that he was interested in the position, Queens councilmember Rory Lancman has announced this morning that he is running for Queens District Attorney. Lancman, who represents neighborhoods in central and eastern Queens, and chairs the Council’s Justice System committee, said that as DA, he would stop prosecuting low-level offenses, launch a wrongful conviction unit, and no longer ask for cash bail.

Queens Councilman Rory Lancman is running for district attorney in Queens — on a platform of reforming the criminal justice system and with the endorsement of two women whose sons were killed by police.

Lancman, a Democrat who chairs the council’s committee on criminal justice, rolled out his candidacy for the 2019 race with a slickly-produced video about the meaning of justice featuring Gwenn Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who was killed when an NYPD officer placed him in a chokehold while trying to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes.

A Queens city councilman is running to become the borough’s top prosecutor on a broad platform of criminal justice reforms.

Rory Lancman is the first Democrat to officially throw his hat in the ring for next year’s race to potentially replace Richard Brown, the 85-year-old incumbent who is reportedly expected to call it quits at the end of his current term. Brown was first elected in 1991 and hasn’t faced an opponent since, according to a 2015 New York Times article.